To say the iX3 is important to BMW is as unassailable as asserting Elon Musk prefers having different women bear his children to preserve the human race . This EV represents the single biggest financial investment in BMW’s history—and considering the parlous state of the Western auto industry right now, it had better pay off for the storied German automaker.

The iX3 is the first of six cars based on BMW’s much-trailed new modular EV platform, the “ Neue Klasse ,” that arrives with new motors, new inverters, new batteries, new charging tech, new interior display wizardry, and, perhaps most importantly, a fancy new central computer brain designed to make these latest electric Beemers drive better than anything on the road right now.

The Neue Klasse range uses the sixth generation of

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